Jessica Ferri

San Francisco's Victorian-era cemeteries were moved to Colma in the 1930s, but many graves remain hidden, raising questions about the role of cemeteries in a city shaped by rapid development.With the exception of the churchyard behind Mission Dolores and the National Cemetery in the Presidio, all of San Francisco's gorgeous Victorian-era cemeteries were evicted from the city in the early 1930s and relocated to Colma, a planned city of the dead just below Daly City where the dead outnumber the living 1,000 to 1.The process of moving hundreds of thousands of graves to Colma wasn't an easy one, and as history has shown, it wasn't even complete. Constant development and renovations in San Francisco have revealed that many of the city's dead never made it to their new resting place, raising questions about the role that cemeteries play in our lives and what we owe to the dead.The story of San Francisco is one of rapid development, for the living--a very specific segment of the living. A city without the dead, or any memorial to them, is a place without history. It is the story of the Bay Area.

Silent Cities: San Francisco chronicles the impact of cemeteries on American cities through the gold-rush development of San Francisco: the relocation of existing cemeteries and prohibition of burials within the city limits at the turn of the century, spawning America's first necropolis, the tiny town of Colma, and the culture of a place where death is exiled.